


Oranges and Yellows

by quirkle



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Drowning, Gen, Hurt Wild (Linked Universe), Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Major Character Injury, Protective Team, Protective Twilight (Linked Universe), Soft Legend (Linked Universe), Team as Family, Violence, Whump, Wild (Linked Universe)-centric, and if you're not okay with boys platonically cuddling after a near-death experience, and you know what?, but now it's LU instead, i cannot bring myself to give a single shit, i fuckin LIVE for soft Legend okay, i must really like writing about hypothermia cuz i literally wrote this same shit like last month, let's just have fun hurting Wild okay, local Rat Boy almost fuckin dies, then i will politely ask you to leave the premises, there's a bit of cuddling, this is probably wildly medically inaccurate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:48:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27800266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quirkle/pseuds/quirkle
Summary: Wild heard his name being called, hurried commands being thrown around in the background, but the fog was too tempting and it was too hard to pull away. He felt his mind slipping, his grip on the ice doing the same. Icy water climbed up his torso, along his neck, past his chin.A cacophony of panicked shouts and one terrified,“Cub!!”later, and he felt the water and fog swallow him whole.
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 542





	Oranges and Yellows

A shriek and one hard swing of a club and Wild was suddenly sprawled out across the ice.

He’d managed to protect his head with a shieldless arm but he was sure his bones would’ve shattered if the hit had been any more powerful. The attack and the explosion of pain had sent him stumbling, his boots slipping on the glacier beneath him and he’d failed at gaining purchase on the ice fast enough. Cold pressed against his back as he heard his sword and something else clatter and skid across the ice, his snowquill tunic thankfully suppressing most of the chilliness, but it did nothing to protect him from the downward swing of a crude-looking sword, coming from above and aimed right at his face.

He quickly rolled to the side, heart leaping at the sound of metal hitting the ice he’d been lying on seconds ago, but he didn’t quite get a chance to stand before another Bokoblin shrieked to his left and tackled him back down. He sensed the other two Bokoblins yelling and howling in delight somewhere to his right as he fought against the sword coming uncomfortably close to his throat. An ugly face snorted and shrieked in anger above him - an unfamiliar one, skin colored purple and mop-like hair tied back, beady little eyes shooting him a look of desperate hunger and baseless, mad aggression. Not a Bokoblin that belonged to his Hyrule, and he dimly wondered if it belonged to any of the others’. All Wild knew for sure was that based on this thing’s physique, it should not be able to pin Wild down like this. The thing was large and a couple inches taller than Wild, sure, but it was so skinny that Wild could see its bones and tendons shift underneath its skin. Its wrinkled face was sunken in, eye sockets prominent and its arms were just long bone attached to long bone with a layer of skin on top, yet Wild was fighting for his life against its strong, stubborn hold on its sword.

Pinning him down flat against the glacier and effectively trapping his legs, it pressed its sword down  _ hard _ , Wild’s gloved hands the only thing keeping his incoming death at bay as he pushed and pushed with all his might, arms shaking, teeth clenched. Saliva dripped onto Wild’s cheek, uncomfortably warm and sticky compared to the freezing air around him, equally warm breath huffing against his nose and haunting his senses with the smell of copper and rotten flesh. Wild turned his head to the side, grimacing as he pushed against the sword desperately, chest heaving, limbs shaky. The sun burned Wild’s retinas and he squinted up at the blurry, silhouetted blob on top of him, panicked mind scrolling through half-baked plans and vague concepts of an escape route.

Wild huffed out a grunt through clenched teeth as he risked putting all the weight on one hand in favor of darting his other to the Bokoblin’s face. A punch, a shriek from his enemy, and quick tug had Wild turning the tables, flipping them over so that he was on top and pinning the Bokoblin against the ice. He quickly wrestled its sword away - he’d dropped his own during his earlier fall - and wasted no time driving it through the creature’s skull. He ignored the shriek that cut off in the middle with a choked gasp and he ignored the squelching sound of warm, black blood moving between the wound and the sword’s steel because there was another screech quickly becoming louder from his left. He snapped his head to the source just in time to see another ugly purple face, no weapons, only rage, before he was tackled  _ hard. _

His body snapped back and his head snapped forward and he expected to meet with the cold ground, but instead he heard an ear-splitting  _ crack _ just as his back hit something solid and he was suddenly enveloped in water.

_ Oh, _ was all his mind could think.

It swallowed him whole, took hold of every nerve in his body and  _ yanked _ and an odd wave of shock passed through him as his lungs acted on their own accord and sucked in a breath of ice cold lake water. He spasmed, hands shooting up to his throat and body squirming as bubbles erupted from him and his flailing limbs. His chest convulsed and his lungs forgot what was breathable as they sucked in another gulp of water as he struggled against the force of his body’s involuntary flails and twitches. The familiar feeling of fear raked at him, made his mind jittery, made his heart thump like it wanted to break out of his ribcage. Through the cascade of bubbles and warped sunlight he could see the surface and the broken shards of ice shuffling along the water mere feet above him. He shot towards it, flailed and grabbed at the water and it stung his body until it felt like stone and raw flesh all at once.

Something clawed at his ankle, gripped it and sunk its angry talons into his flesh as deep as they could go, and he opened his mouth and  _ screamed. _

Not even a second after the hellish, gargled version of his scream rang throughout his own skull more than anything else, he kicked and writhed until he felt the soles of his boot connect with something hard. He distantly heard a gargled shriek of protest over the underwater roar but the claws digging deep into his ankle just inched farther into his flesh. Wild screamed again, the sound warped and agonized as he twisted around and threw a fist at the closest body part he could find in the cacophony of bubbles and bent light. It connected with something that felt like the bony jut of the creature’s chin and it relinquished its hold with another choked yelp. Black dots danced and mingled in his peripherals and a hot knife had embedded itself in Wild’s chest- it  _ burned _ , lungs starved and shrieking like a child, shriveling up like a dying plant.

He planted his feet on what he thought was the creature’s face and  _ pushed _ , shooting himself up toward the surface. After what felt like a million years of the water rippling along his skin and becoming a thick gel, he breached, and the gasp that followed was the most desperate little thing Wild had heard in a long time.

He coughed and hacked and gasped as he grabbed at the water around him, being a bit useless for a moment as he got his bearings. Noise exploded in his head and even though all he heard was the crackling of ice, the splashing of water, and his own desperate inhales it was still all too much. The cold air bit at his wet skin and the water sloshed up to his nose incessantly, trapping his airways. He paddled at the water the best he could, clawed at the surface to find his way to the edge of the hole in the ice and once he felt a jagged rip in the glacier around him he gripped it with all the dexterity he had left in his fingers and pulled himself toward it.

Wild gasped and heaved as he planted his arms over the edge of the hole, cracks slithering across the glacier for what looked like several yards out. Chunks of ice bumped against his back and moved around with the sloshes of the water. The third Bokoblin must have fled when the ice broke, but he could see the Bokoblin he’d killed a few yards ahead, lifeless, with a puddle of black underneath it. The blood trickled around the little bumps in the ice and one streak had crossed paths with a crack in the glacier and seeped into it. It was an eerie sight, especially with how quiet and still it was other than Wild’s panicked gasps and splashes.

The sight of death in such a remote place made him suddenly realize how alone he was. How unequipped for this he was. There were snowy hills and mountains around him as far as the eye could see, white atop white, sun beaming down and making the world around him too bright. Nothing but snow. Nothing but snow and the howling breeze and probably some wolves.

Goddess above, where were the others? Were they still fighting? Had they noticed his absence? Had any of them been injured in their own squabbles? The horde they’d been ambushed by had been infected, no doubt about that, and he’d been overwhelmed by six Bokoblins all at once. He’d killed three on the way here. He hadn’t meant to get so far away from the others. He hoped they were okay. He hoped they hadn’t met a fate like his.

Perhaps they were looking for him? Maybe it was wishful thinking but Wild clung to that thought desperately.

He couldn’t rely on it though - couldn’t afford to - so he let his eyes dart around the white landscape and willed himself to come up with a plan. The hole they’d created in the ice was maybe about as wide as he was tall, but he found that if he leaned too heavily on the jagged edges that they would break and simply create a bigger hole. He heard his teeth chatter and click together as he forced his panic down and grasped at the logical part of his brain.

_ Cryonis. _

Wild darted a hand underneath the water to grab at his Slate and pull it out, but his fingers simply met his hip. He felt around, a sharp zing of panic running through him, and something, somewhere in his brain shut off and he was suddenly breathing harder than he’d like. His eyes darted around, hands shaky as he patted himself over, mind halting in unadulterated fear when he found absolutely nothing. He didn’t understand- it was right there, it was on his belt, when did it fall off-  _ how _ did it fall off- had it been knocked off during the-

In the midst of the panic and the white surrounding him, he caught a flash of blue and orange and brown in his peripherals. His head snapped to it and dread ran a thorough course through his system as his eyes fixed on the Slate lying face down on the ice several yards away. He-  _ everything _ stopped for a moment, the world impossibly silent and overwhelmingly loud all at once. His heart climbed into his throat. He reminded himself to breathe.

_ Okay. _ The water licked at his sides. His fingers were going numb.  _ That’s fine. _ He stuck his tongue in between his teeth to stop the incessant clicking as he shivered.  _ It’s okay. _ Pain shot through his ankle with every movement he made to stay above the water. Injuries and cuts he didn’t even know he had were starting to become apparent.  _ I’m okay.  _ He was pretty sure his lips were turning blue. The snowquill equipment won’t do anything for him if he’s wet.  _ It’s fine. _

It was fine.

He suddenly felt utterly and inexplicably lonely.

His mind flitted to a warm memory; a foggy remnant of a night next to the campfire, where Wind’s excitable voice had carried through the trees around them and his hands had waved around in the air dramatically as he recounted a story from his journey. They’d all cheered at the end of it, Warriors ruffling the kid’s hair and Hyrule leaning forward and asking him questions. Sky had been just as interested in the answers and even though Legend had been leaning back in his spot against the logs they sat on and crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly, his gaze had held a youthful sort of curiosity as Wind answered. Twilight had chuckled at a remark from Four and Time had shaken his head and given an amused, crooked grin from the sidelines. The fire had kept them warm. The banter had kept them close. The cuddle pile that night had proved it.

It was a stark contrast against most of Wild’s memories - a sense of safety and belonging heating up his bones and giving the new butterflies in his chest a warm home. Cold blues and malicious purples belonged to Before. Warm oranges and soft yellows belonged to his times with the group now.

Wild wished desperately to be back there again, because right now, everything felt like those blues and purples.

_ Focus, _ Wild reprimanded himself.  _ It’s fine. You’re okay. _ He couldn’t feel the ends of his fingers anymore.  _ You can do this. _ He willed his heart to slow, his breaths to even out, but he found that hard to do when it was getting increasingly harder to stay above the water.  _ You’ll be okay. _ A chunk of ice broke underneath him and he splashed around until he managed to weakly grip another sturdier section of it.  _ You’ll see them again. _

Wild forced himself to think. He boiled it down to the basics because his addled mind couldn’t handle anything else, and he forced himself to think.  _ Hard to swim. Equipment heavy. Hard to swim with heavy stuff. _ That’s step one.

Wild raised an arm that felt like a stiff, numb log more than an actual arm and he felt around for the buckle on his baldric. He had to kick his legs a little more to stay above the water without both arms but an upside to that is that he could no longer feel the pain of the wound on his ankle. He chose not to think about that too much. After a moment of searching and feeling the faintest traces of metal along his palm, he went in to unbuckle it when he realized that his fingers were not working in the slightest. He tried to twist his arm back and grab his shield but he didn’t have enough feeling in it to even bend it back that far. He tried for his bow and was thankfully able to finagle the string around his head - as soon as he had it over he let it fall into the water behind him. A few pounds gone. He ignored the fact that it really wasn’t much of a difference.

His lips were definitely blue now.  _ It’s okay. _ And his fingers weren’t working.  _ I’ll be okay. _ And he was alone, in the middle of a glacier and stuck in a hole of ice water, and he was beginning to feel a foreboding fog crawl in from the corners of his mind.

The silence was utterly suffocating and Wild felt like he was still underwater. His pathetic splashes and involuntary grunts of pain and panic echoed across the snowbanks eerily, bouncing around in the emptiness just to taunt him. The water around him was either tinted a slight red or he was hallucinating. Either was possible.

Wild’s mind eventually reached the conclusion that he might die here. He didn’t feel like he himself was in on this conclusion - it felt too far away to really grasp. He simply stared ahead, teeth chattering and body shivering uncontrollably, eyes watching the tops of a distant snowbank and letting the slowly dwindling hope in him imagine a sight for sore eyes - perhaps a figure made of those warm oranges and soft yellows marching over the hill, running for him, the name  _ Cub _ leaving their lips as they swooped in for a swift rescue and saved him from the bitter blues and purples.

He couldn’t help but imagine the scoldings he’d get from Twilight and Time. Twilight would probably wrap his fur pelt around him and force a potion down his throat. Time would likely eye him with a look of barely concealed concern after a thorough reprimanding and then stay within five feet of him the entire afternoon, unwilling to move away. Legend would smack him upside the head but then make him dinner and Warriors would give him That Smile after all the chaos was over with, simply relieved to see him alive and with them. Hyrule would fuss over him just as much as Twilight and manhandle him into his bedroll. Wind and Four would offer him their blankets and Sky would stay with him until he fell asleep, making sure that he’s warm and comfortable.

He found himself giving a twitchy, crooked smile at the warm thoughts. Something ached in him - something in his chest throbbed and he knew it wasn’t from a wound. The longer he thought about it, the more bittersweet the warmth got. The more he hated the blues and purples.

Perhaps he was destroying himself with false hope. Perhaps he was simply waiting for the inevitable and using fantasies to pass the time. He couldn’t help but feel a stab of anger at himself, then. He’s called on a mission with eight other Heroes to stop a mysterious force of evil and then he goes and fucking dies. In a frozen lake, no less. What a mighty way to go out.

He’s failed - again. He’s only had two families in his lifetime as far as he was concerned - the Champions and the Links, and he’d failed them both.

_ I deserve this. But they don’t. _

He didn’t know how long he’d been slumped over the edge of the ice, fingers weakly clawing at the slippery surface and mind just barely awake enough to keep his legs moving under the water. He found himself resting his cheek against the sopping wet fabric of his snowquill tunic, eyes half-lidded as the fog rolled in. Some part of him knew he shouldn’t succumb to it and he tried his best to pull away. Some part of him questioned why he was even trying to stay afloat anymore and he honestly didn’t know - perhaps it was because he knew drowning had to be a more painful death than freezing. Perhaps it was that little spark of hope still left in him - that naive part of his mind that still believed they’d find him. Perhaps it was a little bit of that good ol’ Hero’s Spirit at work - never giving up, no matter what.

Wild wished it would give up sometimes.

But then a shout pulled him from the fog.

An echo that bounced off the ice called to him, far away, so distant that Wild almost didn’t hear it. But then there it was again, a little louder and it bounced off the snowbanks for a moment before everything stilled. The slosh of the water returned to Wild’s ears as he forced his eyes to open and focus - they lazily trailed up to the top of the distant snowbanks and stared uselessly, vision blurred, peripherals dark. Another shout; louder, closer. He thought he heard another noise - desperate, somewhat choked and rather pitiful - and it took longer than he was willing to admit to realize it had come from him. 

And then, through his blurry vision and foggy consciousness, he registered a figure advancing over the hill- two of them, absolutely radiating those oranges and yellows. And by the flash of black particles, the startled, desperate,  _ “Cub!!” _ that left one of them and the red tunic of the other, Wild’s addled mind managed to identify Twilight and Legend.

Wild had never felt a bigger rush of relief flood his system.

But it was short lived as Wild watched Twilight hurry toward him, his boots pounding against the ice roughly, and Wild both felt and heard the cracks in the ice trickle a little farther out. He perked up, a pang of awareness and adrenaline boosting him a little as he lifted his head from his arm.

“W-Wa-ait!” he called, voice small and rather pitiful, but he was too worried about the cracks quickly succeeding toward Twilight’s boots to feel embarrassed. He was surprised he could get a good enough grasp on basic motor functions to even speak in the first place. “Be c-car-reful!”

Twilight slowed to a reluctant stop, wide eyes darting between the cracks growing in the ice and Wild’s no-doubt pathetic looking form; draped over the edge of the hole, sopping wet, shivering, lips blue. Even through the mist clouding his brain, Wild noticed the shaking in Twilight’s hands, recognized the wide, dare he say  _ terrified _ stare the man gave him. Wild opened his mouth to speak, or try to anyway, but Twilight beat him to it.

“Cub- you’re gonna be alright,” Twilight breathed, surprising both of them at the steadiness of his voice, the sureness in his tone, even if it was a little unsturdy and a little too quick. “We’re gonna get you outta there, okay? You’re gonna be just fine-”

There were various shouts from behind his mentor, too jumbled and echoey for Wild to discern and he didn’t know if that was because of the empty, echo-prone nature of the glacier or his own frazzled mind. They came closer, became louder, but Wild couldn’t quite latch onto what they were saying or how many voices there were. The fog clogged his ears and overcame his mind once more, the earlier adrenaline rush ebbing from his bones and he let his head fall to rest against his arm again. His mind was cotton, his body numb. A worryingly large part of him wanted to succumb to the exhaustion trickling into his bones.

“-ub, stay wi- ... _ Cub!” _

Wild opened his eyes (he’d closed them?) and put a great effort into lifting his gaze to meet Twilight’s. His mentor nodded quickly, movement jerky as he crouched down on the crackling ice, looking desperate to just inch a few feet closer. “That’s it, Wild, stay with me. You gotta stay awake, bud. Just focus on me, okay? Just keep looking at me-”

Wild didn’t like the way Twilight’s voice now shook.

Wild thought he heard Time shouting at the others to get off the ice. Someone mentioned his Slate, though they probably couldn’t get to it what with it being near the cracks. He heard something about rope, and then a hookshot- someone said  _ water _ and  _ blood _ . Their voices melded together and the colors of Twilight’s tunic swirled into a blurry mass of green and black and blue. He realized he’d stopped shivering. He felt the fight leaving him.

The warmth of unconsciousness sounded rather pleasant right now.

Wild heard his name being called, hurried commands being thrown around in the background, but the fog was too tempting and it was too hard to pull away. He felt his mind slipping, his grip on the ice doing the same. Icy water climbed up his torso, along his neck, past his chin.

A cacophony of panicked shouts and one terrified,  _ “Cub!!” _ later, and he felt the blues and purples swallow him whole.

+

There was fur against his cheek.

A rumbling tugged at him, gently nudged him out of the cloudy froth and thick foam, and the first thing that came to his groggy mind in the midst of the peaceful stillness was the word  _ warm. _ Instead of an otherworldly cold chipping away at his bones and freezing his blood, there was a pleasant heat trickling through his veins, kissing his skin. The second word was  _ safe. _ He wasn’t quite sure why, but something in the air, something in the muddy, murky echo of noise in the background told him that there was nothing to worry about, no monsters to watch out for. It was safe here, in this impossibly warm bubble.

Something moved underneath him, the rumbling returning with a soft vengeance and mixing with a far away murmur that Wild couldn’t discern. A bit of the fog rolled away, replaced with the awareness of something soft and comfortable draped over his shoulders and covering his ears. It encased him, cocooned around him and warmed his heavy bones and he let a little sigh escape him. A slight uptick in the noise around him pulled him further away from the realm of clouds; not an unbearable noise, just louder.

He was moving, he realized. No- shifting, his upper half slowly, steadily bobbing up and down with whatever was underneath him. Wild’s nose twitched at the fur tickling his face and his groggy mind picked out the steady movement underneath him as breathing. He was lying against something, snuggled up in blankets, he registered, and whoever was under him made that rumbling come back.

He heard Twilight’s voice above him, soft and lowered, but he could feel the vibrations when he spoke, Wild’s head resting on his chest. Wild became aware that one of Twilight’s arms was swung around him, holding him close, protectively. A breathy chuckle left his mentor, his chest shaking a little, and Wild felt an odd sense of absolute bliss as he idly counted Twilight’s breaths and trained his ears on the murmur around him.

He caught Warriors’ voice, the telltale proud tone dulled down a bit into a softer, quieter version as he recounted an epic battle from his journey, raving about enemies the size of houses and armies in the thousands - Wind’s gasps and Time’s chuckles overlapped it. Hyrule’s soft murmur came from somewhere near him, chatting with Twilight judging by the occasional gentle chuckles that shook his mentor’s chest when he spoke. He couldn’t quite latch onto the words and he tried to shoo away the last of the fog clinging to his mind.

Wild’s eyes fluttered open and the conversation above him stopped.

“Cub?” Twilight’s voice ventured, soft and hopeful, and Wild let his eyes adjust to the light around him before they focused up on his mentor.

Wild blinked. “Twi?”

Twilight’s back was against the headboard of the bed they lay on, another blanket draped over the ranchhand’s shoulders, oddly. Wild could only see so much of him while curled up against him, but he could see that he wasn’t wearing his usual green tunic and a simple white undershirt took its place. His famous fur pelt that usually sat proudly atop his shoulders was wrapped around Wild, keeping him impossibly cozy. Strangely, his mentor’s hair was damp.

A lopsided smile slipped onto Twilight’s face, but Hyrule butted in before he could get a word out. “How’re you feeling? Are you cold at all? Are you in any pain? The potion we gave you should’ve helped with most of it but if you’re still in pain we have more!” he got out quickly, hand playing with the hem of his tunic.

“I’m fine,” he slurred in only a half-lie, internally wincing when he heard his own raspy voice. There was a weird tingling sensation pretty much everywhere, he felt like he’d been trampled by a horse, and there was indeed some pain shooting up his ankle, but he’s had much worse in the past. Wild made to sit up, but Twilight’s hands were already on his shoulders and easing him back down.

“Ah ah, nope,” Twilight intervened. “You are  _ not _ getting out of this bed- ‘Rule said you shouldn’t be moving around.”

Hyrule nodded and the infamous mom-friend duo had suddenly ganged up on him. The only team-up stronger than this would be if Sky was in on it. “Lie back down, Wild. You  _ can’t _ feel good after that, no matter how,  _ ‘fine’ _ you say you are,” he reprimanded seriously, though his tone was gentle.

Wild suppressed an eye roll and settled for a  _ look,  _ but he found he didn’t quite have the energy in him to fight back so he reluctantly settled his weight against Twilight again. That must’ve been the wrong move, because he could see the concerned look the two exchanged in his peripherals. If he had resisted they would’ve gone against him and fretted over him anyway so Wild couldn’t win here, really.

Hyrule opened his mouth, brows pinched together worriedly, but Warriors butted in and saved him from an interrogation. “Is he up?” his hopeful voice pitched in.

Wild looked up and his slightly muddled mind took in the surprisingly sizable room of what he assumed was an inn before it took in Warriors. It was homey - log cabin style, rugs on the floor, warm fireplace, and just about every blanket in the room had been thrown atop Wild with the exception of the one around Twilight. The fire in the back corner crackled nicely, but Wind’s excited gasp overtook the serene pops and clicks.

A blur of blue and blond zoomed past Warriors and scrambled onto the bed, tackling Wild in a bearhug with the efficiency and speed of a soldier on the battlefield. “Wild, you’re okay!” Wind beamed, voice muffled against Wild’s blankets as he squeezed him.

“Wind- be careful! You’re not supposed to-!” came Hyrule’s worried mothering.

“It’s alright,” Wild chuckled, quickly unearthing his arms from the layers of blankets atop him and returning the hug. He sensed Hyrule slump a little in muted defeat.

“Oh thank the Goddesses,” Sky breathed out from the corner, coming up behind Hyrule with that gentle smile. “Glad to see you awake, Wild.”

“You gave us quite the scare,” Four smiled as he appeared and leaned on Twilight’s side of the bed next to Hyrule. “We’ve been worried.”

“You’re getting pretty good at that, I’ll say,” Warriors said with just a touch of his Captain Voice, but when Wild looked at him and held his gaze for a moment he seemed to buckle and soften. That Smile slowly creeped onto his face as he came up to the foot of the bed, utter relief leaking into his expression and slumping his tense shoulders, and he let out a chuckle. “Just glad to have you back, soldier.”

“You scared the absolute shit out of us!” Wind yelped, popping his head up and glaring up at Wild in (somewhat) mock anger. “You looked so cold and you were bleeding really bad and then you went and passed out on us and Twilight had to jump in after you and then-”

“Wait- what?” Wild blinked, snapping his head to look back at Twilight’s slightly obstinate face, seeing the blanket around his shoulders and the damp hair in a new light. They glared at each other for a moment of silence, the fire tensely crackling in the corner, until Wild raised a hand and slapped Twilight’s shoulder. “Are you crazy?!”

“You were  _ going _ to  _ drown!” _ Twilight argued back, hands in the air, evidently ready with an arsenal of defences. “ _ You’re _ the one crazy enough to fight Bokoblins on top of a  _ glacier-” _

“ _ Boys,” _ Time’s gruff warning came and everyone had the sense to shut their mouths and let the crackling fire fill the silence.

Time’s boots clunked against the wooden floors as he strolled closer to the bed, slow and deliberate. He stopped at the foot of it next to Warriors, who scooted a few inches away, and his good eye swivelled between his protege and his protege’s protege for a moment, studying them as he crossed his arms.

A beat of silence.

“You’re both crazy. And stupid.”

They both blinked like deer in lantern lights at him. He sighed then and let his posture slump a little, a tiny grin slipping onto his face as he looked between them, good eye glowing with relief and a bit of fondness rather than anger. “But you’re both alive, and that’s what counts. The… crazy and stupid part wasn’t exactly new information anyway.”

Wild let a grin slip onto his face and he could feel Twilight relax next to him.

“You sure you’re alright, Cub?” Time inquired gently even though he surely knew exactly what the answer would be.

“I’m fine,” he answered confidently and Wild could tell everyone was resisting the urge to roll their eyes. “You people have no faith in me. It’ll take way more than that to take me down!”

Legend seemingly materialized next to the bed, holding a bowl of hot soup, the steam rolling up and licking at his hair. “If we hadn’t found you when we did, you would have died,” he growled lowly, glare sharp.

The room fell silent again. Wild felt the air thicken and he could hear Sky shuffling awkwardly. Wind shifted on the bed. Legend’s eyes didn’t leave him and Wild couldn’t help but lower his gaze and shrink into himself, just a tad.

“Well… I didn’t…” Wild mumbled, fidgeting with the blankets. “... and now I’m fine.”

It was all he could really think to say.

Another long beat of silence before Legend moved closer and the bowl of soup was suddenly hovering over Wild’s lap, steam billowing up and warming his cheeks.

“Well then show me a good recovery and prove it,” Legend said simply, but when Wild looked up at him his gaze was anything but simple.

It held a plethora of emotions that Wild was sure weren’t supposed to show through - an absolute labyrinth of relief, fear, anger, remorse - but Wild wouldn’t comment on that, nor would he comment on the fact that the soup under his nose was his favorite. He just gently took it from the Hero’s hands, the spoon handle scraping against the rim, and smiled.

“Thank you,” Wild said.

And perhaps to ease the tension and break the silence, Legend then flicked his forehead and grumbled, “And don’t be an idiot next time.”

The thickness in the air dissipated like a spell wearing off and some of them sagged in relief while others chuckled. Wild worked on devouring the soup without hesitation as a soft murmur filled the room, conversations blending into each other again and returning the room to that comfy homeliness. Twilight leaned forward and fixed the blankets around him and Wild gently slapped him away as a silent  _ stop mothering me _ warning, but his mentor did no such thing and continued to fix the blankets even through Wild’s silent barrage of slaps. Just to annoy him, Wind joined in.

Time watched the display in mild amusement as he took a seat next to the bed, floor creaking underneath him. “We’ll stay here for a night or two to recuperate,” he quietly informed Wild under the soft cacophony of murmurs around them. “And we’ll be back on the road once you’re fit to travel again. Just get some rest for now. That means actually  _ sleeping,  _ mind you.”

And unlike any other time, sleeping came surprisingly easy. After some lighthearted banter and a short-lived Wild Freakout about the location of his Slate, (Four had grabbed it, bless his soul) he found that he was rather groggy and slow to respond to things and not even twenty minutes after finishing his soup he found himself slumping against the headboard behind him and trying not to nod off. Twilight must’ve noticed, because he was suddenly being scooted down and tucked against his side and Wild didn’t really have the energy to fight him even if he wanted to. The weight of Twilight’s arm slung around him and the quiet hum of conversations blending together eased the tension from his muscles, and Wild found himself basking in the warmth of the blankets and the voices. His mentor’s chest rose and fell rhythmically underneath him and Wild let his eyes slip shut, content to let the steady thump of Twilight’s heart lull him to sleep.

“Th’nk you,” Wild mumbled before the familiar fog could reign over his mind.

He sensed Twilight shift underneath him, leaning down to listen. “What was that?”

“I nev’r thanked you. For pullin’ me out,” he slurred into the blankets a little louder. “So th’nk you.”

A beat of silence, and Wild just barely heard Twilight’s gentle, “You’re welcome, Cub,” before he drifted off into a realm of warm oranges and soft yellows.

**Author's Note:**

> jojo: makes one (1) new sketch of my sons  
> me: i owe you my life
> 
> Come scream about our favorite boys with me on [Tumblr](https://quirkle2.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
